Shelley Taylor-Smith

Marathon Swimming | Inducted: 2014

Born Perth, Western Australia
3 August 1961

Shelley Taylor-Smith, born in Perth on August 3, 1961 is
synonymous with Western Australian open water swimming. Taylor-Smith won a
world championship in Perth in 1991 in the inaugural women's open water 25km event,
a feat she went close to replicating when she won bronze at the world titles in
Rome, three years later in 1994.

Her first major achievement came in 1983, when she broke
the world four-mile record, adding to an impressive career of achievements that
also includes five titles at the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim with a world
record time of five hours, 45 minutes and 25 seconds in her 1995 success.

Taylor-Smith's record is all the more remarkable given
the obstacles she's overcome that include; growing up with scoliosis, being
diagnosed in 1998 with chronic fatigue syndrome and surviving a life
threatening case of Giardia lamblia infection from prolonged exposure to
polluted water.

She is an icon of WA swimming and a worthy inductee into
the Western Australian Hall of Champions.